Needing something that takes up a lot of space in the garden, I settled on squash. I planted my last five Oregon Sweet Meat seeds (the variety was selected and developed by Carol Deppe, my favorite gardening writer) and also started a few delicata seeds I’d saved from a few years ago. They sprouted! I moved them to the back porch and have been covering them at night with Nancy’s Yogurt containers to keep them warm. Fingers crossed!
It’s time for another Spartan Race. (You can also read about a prior race. I think there have been others, but I was not athletic supporting, so do not have photos.) Matt has been training for this race with a trainer named Candice. That’s her in the photo below. Candice is great at making varied workouts that Matt really enjoys, plus, she is incredibly strong and fit. 
At the start of the race. Matt and Candice ended up racing with the heat of people who had been volunteering. Here they are answering a question posed by the announcer. (I think it was something like “As a Spartan my job is to” and he instructed them to say “a-hoo, a-hoo, a-hoo”. This answer makes no sense, but so much about this race makes no sense to me.) The three shirtless boys on the left were fun to watch and also served as an anchor point later on. It’s because of them I knew I hadn’t yet missed seeing Matt at one of the viewpoints. 
After the start (my start line photo was not very good and is not included) I sat on a picnic table and ate my lunch. I was delighted to find myself sitting behind this white guy with a black hoodie quoting Malcolm X about capitalism and racism. This is not typical Spartan Race fare. Other things I like about this photo: the two people looking for their racer while the little brother entertains himself with a tablet. Watching out for your athlete is a big part of being an athletic supporter.
Sandwich eaten and port-a-potty visited, I settled in to wait for my athlete. It was a very long wait. Matt and Candice were in one of the last heats. After the 2:00 group went, the race people started packing up the start line.
After more than two hours the athletes appeared. I passed the time by reading a few sentences/scanning the racers/reading a few sentences/scanning the racers. Also by watching other athletic supporters. Two people near me chatted for quite some time and then the woman said, “I wonder if we missed him?” which is a common thought among athletic supporters in these races. After more than two hours, I was having that thought myself.
But I hadn’t missed them! Here is Candice:
And here is Matt. This is one of those obstacles where long legs make things more difficult. But he did it! As you can see by the mud, the two of them had already completed many obstacles by the time they got to me.
Climbing the rope. The super saturated color is because I accidentally had my camera set to “poster” so the colors are very bright.
Matt doing 30 burpees because he did not successfully complete the obstacle. Candice entertains herself while she waits. She very quickly climbed the rope. I barely had time to take a picture.
Matt climbing up.
Candice coming down. This is one of my favorite photos.
And so the two of them continued on their way. I wandered around planning out my next series of photos and picking my vantage point. On the way I caught these kids wallowing in the mud. I was greatly amused by them.
At my vantage point I could see these athletic supporters. The man was smoking a cigarette and the woman passed the time by dancing. Their athlete turned out to be a teenager, possibly their son. 
It was only another 45 minutes or an hour before Matt and Candice appeared again. Here’s Matt sliding down a mud embankment.
Candice already made it under the wood wall.
Then it was up the incline and back down.
And under some barbed wire. Matt crawled the entire way. Again, not one of those obstacles where the long legs are an advantage. I think women have an easier time with this anyway. More power in the legs, lower center of gravity. I saw quite a few men log roll through this.
Two more obstacles happened. I did not get them on film. But we’re nearing the end. You can see the state of our participants by looking at the photo below.
The boulder carry involved picking up a big round “boulder”, walking it to the end, dropping it, doing five burpees, picking it back up and walking back. For Matt, it also involved a shoe tying. He swears he wasn’t tying it for the reason I retie my shoes (I need a rest).
Walking back with the boulder. See his raw power!
Over the fire!
And done.
This photo sums up how the two participants completed the race.
Showing off the medals.
Post-race mud and curl in the middle of the forehead.
Then it was back into the car for the drive back to Portland.
I’m keeping up with it this year. Here’s today’s harvest. Every two to three days I get a handful like this. It’s pretty awesome and has been a long time in coming.
And so our McMenamins Passport quest continues, today at Edgefield.
Our first stop: Power Station. I’m noticing how amazingly I backlit Matt in this photo. That was totally planned. 🙂
Next we walked up to the Distillery, where we found out the Distillery tour was beginning momentarily. Score! That means another experience stamp, which got Matt a $20.00 gift card.
Our tour guide (who gave me a hard time for taking his picture when he had his mouth open) told us all sorts of interesting facts about the distillery process. I learned that whisky in the US is aged in oak barrels and most of those oak barrels are then sold to Ireland or Scotland because they reuse the barrels, because the US doesn’t. At McMenamins, they do reuse the barrels, but not for whisky. The law requires whisky to be aged in fresh barrels. Instead they use them to age rum and then on down the list until eventually they become planters.
I also learned that McMenamins whisky demand is high enough that it’s one brewer’s job to make enough beer wash to make McMenamins whisky. Below is a picture of the second still. It can make a lot more whisky than the first one, which was in the photo above.
Look! Whisky barrels reused!
We forgot to take some pictures outside of a few locations, so here we pick up at Jerry’s Ice House, which had some great tucked-away tables hidden inside.
My favorite sign of spring was coming into bloom.
The winery tasting room.
And then we had to find the artwork in the hotel that matched this description.
Check!
Current prizes:
I went for the opener. Matt went for the chocolate drops in the decorative tin.
The view from the front porch. I still have the plan to vacation here, hike in the Columbia River Gorge during the morning, soak in the soaking pools every day, hang out on the porch all afternoon and eat a good dinner every night.
Front porch self-portrait.
A failed attempt to look stern and grumpy.
Did you guess that the Orange Door was on the front cover? Yes? You are right! And guess who took the picture? Did you guess me? Right again!
Ah, Proud Ground. Thanks to you, I can say I have photo credits. My photos show up regularly in your publications.
Here we go, chipping away at another page. Matt, outside the 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop. This shop is newer than our Passports, but we still had to get the stamp. This place can meet all of your McMenamins-related alcohol needs.
Across the parking lot from the Bottle Shop is McMenamins Tavern & Pool.
Onward to Hoyt, where we found the Ram’s Head.
A quick stop at the Blue Moon.
Then a long walk to the Market Street Pub where we got our last stamp and waited for a table so we could get our burger.
Here’s our completed page. We got our Mission Theater stamp when we went to the alien abduction movie last spring.
And here’s my burger. And oyster crackers came with my clam chowder!
I noticed that the lamp wasn’t going anywhere. It’s screwed to the tabletop.
Laurie made the plan. The plan was to get all of our Washington stamps for our McMenamins Passport. We were game, so Laurie and Burt picked us up early on Saturday morning.
These two pages will be done by the end of the day. Plus one more.
Whilst on the road we found a McMenamins friend. The back of the truck advertises the Passport.
There’s this part of I-5 where the vista opens up and all of Seattle is before you. And if you miss that shot, you end up with something like this one.
We drove on past Seattle to our first stop, the Mill Creek Pub. As you can see, Matt and Laurie are letting us know which stop it is. The customer in the window and the waitress waved so they could be in the picture, but by the time I took the picture, they had gone back to ordering.
Our first stamps of the day. We were apparently the fourth group to come through today. And it was just after 11.
Remember our truck friend? We found him again at Anderson School!
The newest property was our second location.
Because the hotel opened after we bought our passports, we had to have a grid stamped and then we made our way around the property collecting our stamps. Along the way we saw:
Fun groupings of light fixtures
This might be the answer to the photo scavenger hunt (Don’t worry, the question changes weekly. By the time the post goes up, this won’t be the answer.)
A Tiki-themed restaurant.
The very pretty pool, which we couldn’t have swum in if we tried.
Stamps collected, we got our swag. I got the bag, Matt got the lunchbox.
Our third location. Seattle’s Six Arms.
Commentary about the state of the Seattle Times.
Queen Anne Pub meant we completed our page and we stopped to collect our prize: a free burger!
What’s that mysterious object peeking through the trees?
The usual McMenamins table detritus.
Our fifth location of the day was the Spar Cafe in Olympia.
I really liked the interior of this location. That’s a copper-topped bar!
Here we are at our final location: the Olympic Club. Which is not in Olympia, but Centralia. Regular readers of The Orange Door might remember our trip to this property in 2012. 
And here’s our swag: a t-shirt. I got the official shirt (in blue). Burt, Matt and Laurie opted for different shirts. I think it’s fun we all ended up with different ones.
Here is our completed Anderson School passport page.
Here are our completed pages 24 and 25.
Eagle eyes will note that page 24 isn’t really done, because I don’t have the stamp for McMenamins on the Columbia. But fear not, we popped in right before we crossed the river, so Matt and I could officially complete our pages.
We’re just over halfway through. Watch for the next big day of McMenamins driving with Laurie and Burt, where we achieve Roseburg, Corvallis, Eugene and Salem all in one day!
For five years, our friends Laurie and Burt have been hosting Breakfast once per month in their home. They live less than a mile away, so Matt and I have attended regularly. Free food! We’re good at that.
Today is, alas, the last Breakfast. I brought a Gingerbread Man friend along, so you will see him in these photos.
This is Burt and Laurie’s house, which I love. Partially because Burt and Laurie live there, but partially because it’s a very old house (for Portland), has a really awesome fireplace that came around the Horn, and also because you can see how the house grew as time went on.
Laurie and Burt always have a variety of beverages, including coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice and water. Because this was the last Breakfast, there was also champagne to make mimosas.
Laurie poses with the food. There are always scrambled eggs, feta cheese, potatoes, vegetarian sausage, bacon and fruit. Plus either pancakes or waffles and some small sugary bready thing like mini cinnamon rolls. It’s a great spread. Laurie’s nephew and his mother also are enjoying breakfast.
Burt is the pancake/waffle man. His pancake/waffle job keeps him in the kitchen, but he pops in and out while things are cooking.
It’s been fun to have five years of breakfasts. I will miss the second Saturday food and conversation. Thanks Burt and Laurie!
